Greg Hardy, the former Pro Bowl defensive end whose NFL career ended because of a domestic violence charge, has embarked on a second career as a pro fighter. His last fight didn’t go well.
Hardy signed with an organization called the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, which promotes bare-knuckle boxing. In his first fight on Friday night, he was knocked out cold by Josh Watson, a mediocre fighter who became the first opponent to be bare-knuckled to give him an easy win.
A left hook from Watson in the second round sent Hardy flat on his back and Hardy was still trying to get up when the referee counted to 10.
Hardy signed with the UFC in 2018 and won a few fights, but he was cut from that organization a year ago after suffering three straight knockout losses. His KO loss on Friday night could suggest Hardy, 34, needs to find something else to do for a living.
Hardy was a sixth-round draft pick for the Panthers in 2010 and was a Pro Bowler in 2013, but spent all but one game of the 2014 season on the commissioner’s exempt list on a domestic violence charge. The Cowboys signed him in 2015, but no NFL team wanted him after that, so he found fighting as his second career.
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